Image: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84478782/f181.item It should be obvious that western civilization is declining; but it doesn't appear to be: everything is fiiiiine. It should be obvious that the way something declines is not random, but it isn't. Perhaps this is because we have flattened the understanding of sin: we like to think there are sinners and saved sinners. There are no saints, people who are further along the path of holiness than others. Thus, we think that society is always bad, always declining, and the particular sins are just the flavour of the month. This is false. Particular forms of decline do not occur randomly. The modern conception of homosexuality would *never* have occurred in the early medieval period. Playing the victim would *NEVER* have occurred in pitiless ancient Rome. And neither of these things would tend to be *salient* (meaning, they may occur, but would not capture the public imagination) in a rising culture (just think about the